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top view of swirl of ermine frosting on cookie

Ermine Frosting

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  • Author: Elizabeth Farr
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: enough frosting for a 9x13 cake or a batch of sandwich cookies

Description

The cooked roux in old-fashioned ermine frosting makes for a satiny smooth frosting that is stable enough to pipe and will smooth onto a cake without any difficulty.  If you’re someone who doesn’t usually like frosting, this recipe is worth a go as it has much less sugar than typical buttercream frostings.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup whole milk (236 mL)
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150 g)
  • 4 tablespoons flour (33 g)
  • 2 sticks butter, at room temperature (227 g)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract

Instructions

Make the Roux

  1. Mix flour and granulated sugar together in a wide skillet. whisking flour, sugar, and milk in skillet for roux frosting
  2. Add in the milk and whisk everything together over medium-low heat until the roux starts to thicken.
  3. When the flour starts to pull away from the bottom of the skillet, it is thick enough. The roux should be glossy and slightly translucent. cooked roux for ermine frosting recipe and whisk in skillet

Cool the Pudding

  1.  Scrape the roux into a pie plate

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    , smoothing it into a thin layer.
  2. Spritz a piece of plastic wrap with cooking spray and place the plastic oiled side down right on the surface of the pudding. Put the pie plate

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     in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. When you can put your hand on top of the plastic and feel no warmth from the pudding, you’re ready to move on. hand pressing piece of plastic on top of pudding in pie plate

Finish the Ermine Buttercream Frosting

  1.  Beat the butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer. When the butter is soft and smooth, add in the cooled pudding a little bit at a time over about 1-2 minutes.  If you’re short on time, you can add all the pudding into the butter with the vanilla all at the same time (Lazy Ermine Frosting for the win!).  You’ll lose a tiny bit of volume doing things this way, but it still works just fine.
  2. Continue to beat the frosting for about 30 seconds to 1 minute after you’ve added in all of the pudding. Add the vanilla and beat for a few more seconds. The frosting should be light and fluffy and able to hold its shape easily.
  3. If the frosting seems droopy at all, chill it for 10 minutes and beat it again for a few seconds.  Your butter might have been too warm, so it’ll need a little bit of a chill to hold its shape.
  4. If the frosting looks grainy, the butter is likely too cold or the pudding too warm.  When you started beating the butter, if it seemed stiff, keep beating; the friction of the mixer will warm it up enough for the buttercream to eventually come back together.  If the butter looked at all melty in its graininess, pop it in the fridge for 10 minutes and try again with a few more seconds of beating.
  5. From here you can use the frosting as you would for any cake, cookie filling, or for cupcakes.  top view of swirl of ermine frosting on cookie

Equipment

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Notes

Even Less Sugar Ermine Frosting: You can cut down the sugar to 2/3 cup (133 g) without losing too much volume.  I prefer this slightly less sweet frosting for filling cookies like Oatmeal Cream Pies or Soft Chocolate Sandwich Cookies.

pastry bag, oatmeal cookie topped with ermine frosting with another oatmeal cookie slightly offset to show how to fill oatmeal cream pies, a dish of oatmeal cream pies

  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 5 minutes
  • Category: Baking building blocks
  • Method: Mixer, Stovetop
  • Cuisine: American

Find it online: https://bakingwithtradition.com/ermine-frosting/